Transcript
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[Music]
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Today we're diving into a quiet corner of Clifton Bristol, a charming neighborhood that suddenly found itself in the middle of a real-life nightmare.
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Our story begins with Joanna Yates, a young landscape architect with Christmas plans,
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sidering the fridge, and a boyfriend out of town for the weekend.
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It was supposed to be a cozy night in, but when her boyfriend returned, he found an eerie scene.
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Joanna's coat, keys, and phone all untouched.
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Joanna was simply gone.
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What followed was a massive search, but it didn't take long for suspicion to turn to her eccentric landlord, Christopher Jeffries.
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A strange man with the worst luck to be cast as a villain, yet as public judgment started to condemn him,
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an even darker, quieter figure started to emerge.
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Today we're pulling back the layers on Joanna's last days and revealing how Clifton Bristol learned the unsettling truth that real monsters don't always look the part.
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[Music]
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Joanna Clare Yates had a lot going for her. Born in 1985 in Hampshire, England, she was the kind of person who seemed to make all the right choices.
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Good schools, good degree, and finally a good boyfriend in Greg Reardon.
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In architect, she met not long after finishing her studies in landscape architecture.
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Things were looking up for Joanna and Greg.
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They moved into a cozy place on the ground floor of a converted house in Clifton Bristol,
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an area known for its picturesque streets and charmingly ancient homes that seem to stare down at you.
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Judging, you can almost hear the mutter.
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This is Bristol, not some quaint mystery novel.
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Joanna and Greg's flat was part of a house divided into three.
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Their landlord, Christopher Jeffries, a retired school teacher with a strong resemblance to a mad professor from a children's book, lived directly above them.
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And on the top floor was Vincent Tobak, a Dutch architect with a steady job and a steady girlfriend.
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For about a year, everything went along in blissful, unremarkable harmony.
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The trio seemed like the perfect professionals only household.
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Then came December 2010, and as we all know, December is the month when the plot thickens, whether we're ready or not.
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On December 16, Greg headed to Sheffield to spend a few days with family, leaving Joanna to herself for the weekend.
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By December 17, she was out and about in Bristol.
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CCTV cameras captured her moving throughout the city.
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She had drinks with friends at a pub, stopped at bargain booze to pick up cider, and grabbed pizza.
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Just a normal Friday night, everything's neatly captured on video,
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almost as if documenting her steps for a city wide game of "Where's Joanna?"
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She was last seen walking toward her home with shopping bags, but from that point, no one else saw her alive.
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Fast forward two days to Greg's return.
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He walked into the flat, probably expecting the scent of that margarita pizza,
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wafting in the air, or some vague sign of life at all, but instead he was met with silence.
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Joanna's coat, her purse, her keys, they were all there, right there where she'd left them.
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It was like she'd just vanished.
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When Greg called her phone, he could hear it ringing from inside her coat pocket.
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He called again, same ringing, no answer.
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At that point, alarm bells began to ring, literally and figuratively.
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Greg, along with Joanna's family, reported her missing, and just like that, the search was on.
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Police, volunteers, and neighbors scoured Clifton, looking for any trace of her.
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Joanna's face quickly appeared on news bulletins, and as the days passed, her story gained traction.
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The media loved it, a young woman alone missing around the holidays.
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Reporters hovered, cameras rolled, and Joanna's family made public pleas for information.
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The Yates family naturally was desperate for answers.
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The nation watched, hoping for a holiday miracle, but the days crept on, with no sign of Joanna.
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Then, Christmas Day, supposedly the one day of the year meant for goodwill, family, and men's
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pies, served up a grim revelation. A couple walking their dogs near a quarry outside Bristol,
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stumbled upon something lying in the snow. It was Joanna's body, frozen by the winter chill,
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dressed only with her pink shirt partially pulled up. The weather had preserved her, almost as if
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holding on to some terrible secrets that no one wanted to hear, and autopsy confirmed what many
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had feared. She had been strangled to death. At this point, the investigation kicked in to high
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gear. A few neighbors came forward with reports of odd sounds on the night she disappeared.
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Someone had heard a scream, another a cry for help. All the signs painted a grim picture of a struggle,
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but it wasn't immediately clear who could have been responsible.
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Enter Christopher Jeffries, the landlord. Jeffries was the sort of a century who
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neighbors might not add on the street, but would not invite over for tea. He was known around the
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building as quiet, intelligent, and a little quirky, maybe even peculiar by Clifton standards,
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which is saying something. Police brought him in for questioning, and while they were at it,
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they seized his belongings. They combed his flat for evidence, examining it from floor to ceiling.
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But while the investigators found plenty of material to interest the tabloids, on actual evidence,
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they came up empty. The press, meanwhile, went to town. To them, Jeffries was a figure out of
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central casting, made for scandal. Joe Suspect is peeping Tom, and the strange Mr. Jeffries,
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where some of the headlines splashed across papers, each of them implying guilt while carefully
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towing the line of libel. Reporters reveled in portraying him as a shadowy villain,
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the sort of recluse who might keep bats or pets, or spend afternoons talking to his wallpaper.
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By the time the police released him without charges, the damage was done. Jeffries couldn't leave
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his home without being mobbed by reporters. He'd effectively been tried and convicted by the court
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of public opinion. For months, there were no further leads, and Joanna's family and friends waited
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an agony. The whole case seemed to be fading into that murky area where unsolved mysteries live.
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Then, just when it looked like the case would go cold, police received an anonymous tip
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that shifted their focus entirely. The tip named another tenant from Joanna's building,
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Vincent Tabok. Tabok was quiet, polite, and employed. He didn't seem like the type to raise
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any eyebrows. He'd initially spoken to the police as part of their investigation, but had flown
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completely under the radar. Now, under the spotlight, Tabok's facade began to crack. Investigators
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uncovered a troubling internet history. Tabok had been visiting escort sites, and more disturbingly,
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had an apparent fascination with violent, sadomasochistic pornography, including scenes of women being
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strangled. Police found images saved on his computer of women bearing resemblance to Joanna,
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with one particularly unsettling image showing a woman wearing a pink top pulled up in the same
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manner as Joanna's. The evidence was damning enough for police to arrest him. Though he initially
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denied involvement, he later admitted to a prison chaplain that he'd killed Joanna, claiming that
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it had been by accident. This admission did nothing to relieve the public outrage. Instead, it only
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deepened it. People wanted justice, and they wanted the full truth. In court, Tabok pled guilty to
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manslaughter, but the prosecution argued for murder conviction, describing, inheriting detailed
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the evidence of Joanna's struggle, and the 43 injuries she'd sustained. The court agreed,
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finding Tabok guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison. During the investigation,
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authorities also uncovered a trove of child pornography on his laptop, which added further
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months to his sentence. As for Christopher Jeffries, his life had been upended, though he was eventually
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exonerated, the experience left a lasting mark. He sued several major news outlets for defamation,
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and, to some degree, justice was served. He won his cases, settling out of court with several
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publications. His story became a cautionary tale about media ethics and the dangers of jumping to
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conclusions. In the end, Joanna's story lingers as a haunting reminder of life's unpredictability,
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and the darkness that sometimes hides just beyond the familiar. Her case brought more than just
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shock and sadness. It exposed the disturbing ease with which public judgment and media narratives
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can turn innocent people into villains. Christopher Jeffries, once her unassuming landlord,
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saw his life dismantled overnight. Tabloids cast him as a sinister figure,
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reveling in the sensationalized headlines and quietly ignoring his innocence until the damage
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was irreversible. Years later, he remains a stark example of how quickly society rushes to paint
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someone as a monster, when in reality he's merely eccentric. Then came the real monster, Vincent
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Tabok, hiding in plain sight. The quiet neighbor from upstairs, who nodded politely in the hallway
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and blended seamlessly into Bristol's professional class, concealed a darkness no one could have
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foreseen. His conviction for Joanna's murder brought closure but did little to fill the void left
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by her loss. For her family, holidays will never be the same, forever tinged by the painful memory
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of those agonizing days when she was missing, by the grief of knowing that her life was taken so
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senselessly. Clifton itself changed too, forever altered by the knowledge that danger can emerge
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from even the most familiar faces. The community, once confident in its safety, was left with a bitter truth.
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We can never fully know those around us. Nor can we entirely guard against tragedy.
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Joanna's life became a story, tragically famous, woven into Bristol's history, but it's a tale that
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needed no embellishment or spin. It stands as a stark reminder of our vulnerability, the dangers of
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hasty judgment and the painful weight of lives interrupted.
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That's 10 Minute Murder for Today. Brief and bingeable true crime. I'm Joe, the host.
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Thank you for taking the time to listen. If you're new to the show, make sure you're subscribed.
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Right now, just look at where you're listening. If you put your phone down,
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pick it up for a second if you don't mind and make sure that the subscribe button is pressed.
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And while you've got your phone in your hand, you can go over to any social media platform that
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you want to follow 10 Minute Murder and go ahead and follow right there. In any information that you
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need or want, you can find at 10minutemerder.com. And if you don't find it there, which I don't know why
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you wouldn't, but if you just want to ask me a question, maybe send me a story suggestion,
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you can do that by emailing me, jo@10minutemerder.com. And speaking of, here is one of those emails.
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Hi, Joe. First off, I love your show. After listening to each episode, I go to the ratings and give you
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five stars because you deserve it. I really appreciate it. I probably don't deserve that, but I appreciate it.
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My question is, does that make a difference in your ratings if I do this every time?
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Or if they see me doing it once, then my rating is no longer considered. And once again,
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thank you for everything you do, Mike. And Mike, first of all, you have no idea how much I appreciate that.
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That's some serious dedication. Leaving me a review in five stars after every single episode,
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and we're like hundreds and hundreds of episodes in. Mike, you're doing some serious, heavy lifting on
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behalf of the show, and I really appreciate it. However, I think if you do it one time, I think if you
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rate and review it one time per platform, then that's good enough. So if we're talking, this is,
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I don't know what place you're listening. This is hypothetical. If you're listening and rating on
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Apple podcasts, if you do it one time, it sticks. It stays there. If you listen on Spotify,
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you can rate there as well. And it'll stick and it'll stay there. You don't have to do it every single
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time for every single episode. Now, I do know that there are a couple platforms where you can rate
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each individual episode. And if that's where you're listening, then yeah, by all means, do it to it.
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But if not, just one time is enough. And again, this is the third time I'm saying this, but Mike,
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wow, I really appreciate you. All right, that's going to do it. That is your episode for today.
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Thank you so much for listening. And in Mike's case, rating 10 Minute Murder.
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[MUSIC]
